DGPulldown / NTSC Film MPEG Question

[jmcmike]

OK, I have banged my head for entirely too long on this one. I think I am fundamentally missing something here so please bear with me as I attempt to explain everything and hopefully not come off as being completely without a clue.

Source File: MPEG2 System stream (MPEG2 Video, AC3 5.1 audio) Streams remuxed after being demuxed from VOB ripped by DVDShrink. Note: I have had luck with files like this in the past doing simple video cut edits with VideoRedo and also have some experience with remastering the discrete audio tracks (unmuxed with besweet) and then reencoding to AC3 and remuxing the new AC3 with the video stream from the aforementioned cuts.

All that being said, for the sake of this discussion, assume that this is a simple file as described, ripped right from a DVD. Now, as far as I can tell, this file is 23.976 fps with a 3:2 pulldown (hope I got that right) and to date that has been just fine.

However, I am trying to make use of Sony DVD Architect Studio and it only allows 29.97 fps projects and whenever I feed it a compliant file (as described above) it wants to reencode the video to 29.97 fps and in fact it identifies the source file as 23.976 fps.

Enter DGPulldown, or so I thought. I was thinking (perhaps erroneously) that I could run DGPulldown on the demuxed M2V (converting from 23.976 to 29.97) and then remux the original audio and that should fix DVD Architect's little red wagon.

Well, aside from the fact that the audio is out of sync after remuxing, the resulting video still seems to be flagged with a 3:2 pulldown and DVD Architect still identifies the file as 23.976 fps.

Will someone please tell me where I am going wrong?

[Guest]

I don't mean to be glib, but apparently you are going wrong in choosing to use Sony DVD Architect Studio. If it thinks a 3:2 pulled-down M2V marked in the stream as 29.97fps is 23.976fps, you should seek a refund (unless there is a built in IVTC that can be turned off).

In your case, running DGPulldown doesn't change anything because the ripped stream is already pulled down.

I use TMPGEnc 2.5 plus TMPGEnc DVD Author 1.6 for making DGPulldown projects. Everything works as expected. I start with 23.976 progressive video, run DGPulldown to flag it up to 29.97fps, and then give it to DVD Author, which makes the DVD without reencoding. I also do PAL to NTSC conversions using this toolset.

[Guest]

I just found this part of a review that suggests there should be an option to retain the pulldown:

One unique feature of DVD Architect is the ability to import virtually any video or audio format to the project. Quicktime, wmv, wma, aiff, MP3, wav, Ogg Vorbis, avi, m2v, mpg 1, mpg 2, uncompressed, 4:2:2, 24P with pulldown removal (if desired, or pulldown may be allowed to go unremoved, depending on user needs) and several other formats may be inserted to the project. Files that are not DVD spec compliant will be recompressed, and DVD Architect warns in advance of what these files are. Note this part: "or pulldown may be allowed to go unremoved, depending on user needs".

[jmcmike]

Thanks for the research but this is the "Studio" product (read cheap) and it does not support projects other than 29.97 and I can't see anything in the options about what you're referring to. I understand what you said in your first post now (I think) about DGPulldown only adding the pulldown flags. Makes sense now.

Now, if only this program wasn't such a pain.

[Guest]

Look for Options/Preferences/General. Uncheck "Allow pulldown removal..."

Unfortunately, the option is available only in the full version, according to the user manual.